Such shaking apparatus are used among other things for mixing chemical, biological or pharmaceutical samples in laboratories. For this purpose, the mixture components are filled into sample containers such as micro titer plates and arranged on an oscillating plate of the shaking apparatus. It is made to vibrate in order to thoroughly mix the mixture components, so that the mixture components of the sample are able to mix in the desired manner.
In modern laboratories it is currently common practice to use standardized micro titer plates as sample containers which comprise in a single plate a plurality of sample containers. By using such micro titer plates, a whole number of different samples or so-called libraries can be shaken simultaneously in a single shaking process. This improves on the one hand the working efficiency of the laboratories and increases on the other hand in a desirable manner the number of samples which can be examined in parallel or simultaneously. That is why shaking apparatuses for micro titer plates are used in modern laboratories especially for so-called high-throughput screening (HTS) methods in which the samples can be processed in an automated manner by robots for example.
A shaking apparatus which is outstandingly suitable for conventional micro titer plates is the shaking device with magnetic drive and automatic oscillating plate centering as disclosed in DE 20018633. With this device, it is possible in a very short time to shake the samples in the sample containers thoroughly and favorably by circular oscillating movements of the oscillating plate, thereafter to stop the same rapidly and to center the same in a defined basic position suitable for the robots.
In order to further increase the throughput and the size of the libraries to be analyzed simultaneously, the need for shaking apparatuses for micro titer plates with sample containers which are further reduced in size as compared with previously used sizes has increased strongly in recent times.
The invention is therefore based on the object of providing a shaking apparatus for sample containers and a method for shaking sample containers of the kind mentioned above in which the smallest possible sample containers or micro titer plates with a large number of the smallest possible containers can be used.
This object is achieved with the shaking apparatus for sample containers and with the method in such a way that the oscillating plate is made to vibrate in resonance oscillation. Further preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the sub-claims.